West Warwick Dental Capital Campaign

You can help build a community of smiles and bring dental care to more than 12,000 people each year with a gift to Thundermist’s West Warwick Dental Capital Campaign.

Thundermist Health Center of West Warwick purchased a new dental building located at 5 Washington Street, West Warwick in December 2019. This will become the home of a state-of-the-art dental practice.

Need for New Space

Our current dental facility, located at 1219 Main Street in West Warwick is leased, needs significant repairs, and lacks the capacity to meet overwhelming patient demand.  Currently, the practice serves 7,000 people annually, from nearly every zip code in Rhode Island.

However, more than 45,000 calls are received for dental services annually leading to more than 1,200 patients on a waiting list.

There is a severe statewide shortage of dental services for people with Medicare and those without insurance. These access issues also disproportionately impact our state’s seniors because Medicare does not cover most dental procedures.

Between 2012 and 2017, the number of patients served by dental safety net providers in West Warwick increased by 25 percent. Yet there are still many patients going without care because Thundermist currently lacks the capacity to care for them.

The West Warwick dental practice receives approximately 15 calls daily for urgent visits. Thundermist treats all patients who are experiencing pain, which helps to reduce unnecessary hospital emergency department visits. However, we currently lack the capacity to schedule follow-up visits for these acute needs.

Our current leased space has several design flaws including a lack of accessibility for patients in wheelchairs or stretchers, one-door egresses in the operatories, no dedicated sterilization space, and no dedicated area for panoramic x-rays.

The New Space

As part of our strategic and annual plans to relocate this practice, we conducted an exhaustive search to find an appropriate facility that could both expand and enhance our current dental services, both in in terms of access and patient and provider satisfaction. We found the perfect location to expand our services, just a one-tenth of a mile away from our current location and recently purchased a building located at 5 Washington Street, West Warwick.

With the guidance of Vision 3 Architects, we envision a state-of-the-art facility that allows us to expand our services. Critical enhancements include:

• • • Expanding access to care from 7,000 to 12,500 patients
    • Increasing our operatories (patient rooms) from 12 to 21
    • Greatly expanded waiting room with complete handicapped accessibility
    • Expanded hallways to accommodate patients in wheelchairs and stretchers
    • Two enlarged operatories, dedicated to patients in wheelchairs and stretchers
    • Dedicated panoramic x-ray area
    • Dedicated and enlarged sterilization, lab areas, and supply storage areas
    • Dedicated practitioner and staff areas, for confidential conversations and critical team meetings
    • Expanded patient parking
    • Adding two-door egresses to each operatory

Project Budget and Funding

We expect the total cost of the project to be approximately $7.4 million with the addition of a second floor. The financial resources needed to move our existing dental practice are considerable. Thundermist will fund these expenses with existing capital reserves, cash-on-hand resources, philanthropic support via a capital campaign, and additional grant funding.

We have raised more than $850,000 of our $900,000 capital campaign goal. We are delighted to have received grant funding for this project from the Centreville Bank Foundation, Ocean State Charities Trust, The Champlin Foundation, The Warren Alpert Foundation, Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, Navigant Credit Union, Washington Trust Charitable Foundation, and the Edward J. and Virginia M. Routhier Foundation, Fred M. Roddy Foundation, and The Ida Ballou Littlefield Memorial Trust, and full participation from our board of directors. In addition, Delta Dental has made an initial leadership gift for this campaign.

We hope you will join us in bringing this vision to life via a gift to the campaign. You can make a gift by clicking the “donate” button and in the description box, write “Capital Campaign.” If you would like to send a check via mail, please send it to the following address and note in the memo “capital campaign.” If you are a Thundermist employee, payroll deduction is available. Please contact Gil Pontes for more information.

Thank you for considering a gift to help “Build a Community of Smiles.”

Thundermist Health Center
Attn: Development
171 Service Avenue
Building 1
Warwick, RI  02886